The centrepiece of the Water Project Toolkit is a ‘strategic approach for the equitable, efficient and sustainable management of water resources’. This implies the need to protect the aquatic eco-system and extend the health-giving and productive properties of freshwater resources, equitably and efficiently among humankind - with special emphasis on the poor and under-served people.

The policy principles elaborated here relate directly to the core principles already established by international consensus referred to in the introduction. Their most authoritative expression is encapsulated in the four over-arching core principles agreed upon at the International Conference on Water and the Environment in Dublin in January 1992 and in the subsequent international conferences such as the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and the follow-up at the UN Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD).

While the core principles provide a basis for water-related policy, they are relatively remote from practitioner realities and offer little guidance for resolving the dilemmas and difficulties experienced in their practical implementation. Therefore, as part of the development of a strategic approach, and to aid administrative management and implementation of water-related policy, this Toolkit presents a series of policy principles applicable at the programming and project level. These are as follows:

• institutional and management principles
• social principles
• economic and financial principles
• environmental principles
• information, education and communications principles
• technological principles.

These headings reflect the wider range of issues essential for effective water resources management. Many of these principles are inter-related and interlinked.

The policy principles broaden the framework within which integrated water-related policy can be addressed in an organised fashion. As emphasised throughout this Toolkit, water is not a commodity like other economic commodities – it is a fragile natural resource and a public good which cannot be replaced. It must be protected and access preserved for future generations in order to maintain sustainable liveable environments on which societies and economies rely.

Sound water resources management affects development activity in economic, productive, infrastructural and social sectors Concerns outside an immediate programming and project environment – such as sustainability of the resource over the long term, protection of water- dependent ecosystems, sustainability of service management, and enhancement of the wider urban or rural environment – need to be taken into account. The positive implications of adopting a broader strategic approach to water cannot be underestimated. More governments are implementing a range of practical changes which are integrated and respond effectively to the core principles of the new consensus. Activities at the macro-level (integrated water resources management, water policies, legislation, and institutional change) and at the micro-level (user participation or community-level operation and maintenance, ) are given more weight proportionately compared to technical activities. Technological issues such as construction, which previously dominated programme strategies, still remain critical components but are now regarded as one set of considerations among many.

The policy principles are cross-cutting and applicable to all types and aspects of water-related activities – from surveys, to human resources development or construction of installations – whatever their physical, social or economic setting. Such principles form a foundation for a strategic approach that will facilitate clear thinking on objectives and actions.